Ashes of Memory
by A. G. Moria
Summary: A young girl with a forgotten past yearns for the secrets to her memory. A certain Vampaneze also yearns to find her and the secrets to both of their past lives. Their fates are faced with certain death and pure compassion, but it all depends on their will to survive and everyone's destiny.


**My story first had four chapters but I decided to edit them and give my story new life and meaning so it can flow a bit easier and still have the same bloody ring to each chapter I bring afterwards.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything having to do with Cirque Du Freak, but I own my own characters. For those who would wish to know which one I write for here it is: I only write with the manga series. With that being said and done we can move onto the actual story now.**

* * *

Throughout the night children cried their eyes out while nightmares swirled in and out of their minds. Creatures emerged from the smallest corners of the shadows to hunt down any prey they might find.

What most people that had common sense would know at this time, this time meant higher, more powerful, creatures of the moonlight would awaken and take the darkness as their own. Enjoying every second of slaughtering or just simple feeding upon their prey to satisfy their hunger and or greed of the flesh.

However, this night would be the night when yet another one of these creatures would take flight into the life of blood and never look back into what they might've called a living nightmare before their blooding. This is just the start of the story but the kind of start that leads nowhere but the end.

* * *

The truthful light of day retired leaving the deceptive beams of night to take their time in strides throughout the ever growing darkness of which belong to the night.

Be that as it may, the beings known as human were still awake and still very much alive during both times of the day. Causing unbelievable noise, damage, and other various occupations, it was a miracle that one creature of the night in particular was able to sleep during the day and one hour into the night. Especially when he was "murdered" only but a few weeks ago.

Now having been thought to be dead for over a month, Murlough had tracked the young vampire, Darren Shan, which led him to his murder. The boy's master was the one who he really fought and delivered a serve blow to the chest, and even though he lived, now he just wanted to take his actual revenge on the boy. Leave his master for the rats and barely alive like he was but a couple weeks ago and continue his life.

All of his tracking had led him to the famous Cirque Du Freak; this was most likely what the two vampires traveled with to avoid more open interactions with humans. As for the time being, the cirque was on the outside of a small town that was but a couple of miles outside an enormous city. Nighttime had just fallen as he awoke in the back of an old van next to meatless skeletons.

"Damn this uncomfortable material". He scowled as he yawned. He was grateful to be alive still to exact his revenge on those two vampires but he still yearned for more comfortable sleeping quarters like any of his kind would.

After carefully stretching to make sure he didn't happen to strain his newest scar on his chest, he looked to the moon and felt a surge of power begin to course through his veins. "At least tonight will be the night that I've been waiting for, for a while. Yes young Murlough will have his revenge and enjoy it and all the guts that come with it"! A sharp toothed grin crossed his face and it was filled with everything but good intentions.

Once he was finished with the vampires he would return to his old life and continue searching for what he had been looking for, for over twenty to thirty years now. Murlough was trying to look back and find a certain piece of his past that he had held dear to him for nearly three hundred years, but the chances of finding it again were almost certain to be none.

No matter the case Murlough quickly left his hiding place to an area a safe distance away where he could look upon the vampires in peace. The Cirque Du Freak had made its location in a rather small fairground and tonight was their last night here before they left for somewhere new, and the last thing he wanted this night was for his prey to live another day.

* * *

Not too far from the lone creature of the night a simple white house with a red roof stood alone in the middle of a field. From an immortal's point of view this house held anything but what would catch their interest, but if one looked closer into the heart of the household they would come to see that of a beginning about to happen.

At the time being a young female was locked inside of her room all alone with no one but herself to talk to. The name she was given was Ashlethen and she had brown hair that ended with an inch of red and dark eyes that were frozen with nothing but sorrow. Her attire was slightly different; she dressed in a pair of her light blue jeans with a tie-dyed shirt.

To every human that came across this young girl, they all saw the same thing, a young human girl. It was as for a matter of fact that this girl was anything but human but was nothing else at the same time. Even her memory was nothing except until the point she knew that humans were weak and that was something she learn almost instantly. In short, the girl had nothing to call a past and without that she barely had anything to call a future. For years she has been looking for her actual past since those years in life were missing in her memory. Sure some people forget the first years of their lives but this was entirely different since she truly knew that the life she was living was a lie.

Living with humans for years and the whole time she knew something was up or something was lying to her, but she could never find out what. Sometimes she just wanted to say that she wasn't human, but then what was she? Certainly nothing she knew of and nothing that these humans would believe anyway. Ashlethen was that of an unknown in her life and the past life she might've had before this one.

At the time being young Ashley stared out at the fairgrounds from her bedroom window looking at the cirque's tents and smirking at her thoughts about them. It was the first time something like this has appeared in the middle of this nowhere where she was placed in and a chance to see such a thing would be something far greater than a memory.

"Damn I should've bought a ticket," She slowly sighed. "Although, mom and dad just had to take the night off and leave Alex in charge of me. Then she just happened to need all of my money to buy herself a ticket to the cirque and leave me here alone". She hissed the last part as she recited all that had happened so far.

Alex, her sister, was completely different then Ashley in almost every way and acted like she owned the world when no one but her sister was around. When other people were around, Alex acted like a perfect little angel and behind their backs she would do whatever it took to stab her little sister in the back. She bullied young Ashley into getting what she wanted, and when she didn't get what she wanted Alex took her rage out on Ash.

When it just so happened that the cirque came into town the two of them stated they wanted to go but only one was there now while the other stayed due to harsh threats, stolen cash and punches to the face and stomach.

After looking at the tents for a while Ashlethen looked at a picture of her dead dog on my table. "Oh Jetta I know I should be there right now," She complained to her late dog. "Alas, it was fate's choice to have me placed in such a hell. I'm stuck between no real past memories and no hope of a future at this pace. At least there will be other cirques…in about the next hundred years or so". She groaned and fell back onto her bed.

The picture of her beloved late black pug only cause Ash heartache most days, but as she continued to gaze out at the tall tents it seemed to keep the pain away. Something was different about tonight for sure, but she would've never been able to guess what until it was too late.

* * *

The lone vampaneze had gotten close enough to the Cirque Du Freak that no one would be able to sniff out his scent or see him. However just as he was about to close in towards the vampires' scent that led into their tent, he saw the two walking about in the night with another person following right behind them.

No a human female.

No, no it wasn't just another human.

Yes, this one had recently been blooded by the older vampire, Crepsley, but where the hell where they going now?

He grumbled to himself, "Once I find these damn two, they just have to keep on moving don't they"? He sighed and continued to follow behind them at a safe distance.

Murlough silently stalked his prey through the pitch black night as they, themselves, hurried along to a lone house that stuck out from its empty surroundings. Apparently this new blood was collecting her things like her clothes and whatever else she couldn't live without before living with vampires for the rest of her life.

Now circling around the house, Murlough was hiding in some bushes beside the west side of the house watching the three of them through a large window that showed right into the girl's bedroom.

"_Crepsley you blooded one new assistant all in one night," _Murlough thought to himself. _"What're you up to you old ginger head"? _

Thoughts and ideas ran through his mind until a quick gust of another scent caught his attention almost instantly. Sure enough the scent of vampires reeked in the night air, but one very special scent caught Murlough's attention as he moved closer to the house.

"I can't believe this…" He whispered and then smirked. "To think this the night that has been stalled until now". The Vampaneze quickly picked the lock to the front door and hurried to the room of his target.

* * *

**Ashlethen's Point of View…**

A sudden crash of the window below my room sent me staring down at the broken glass below with a questionable expression. I saw two men down there; the one looked very young compared to the orange haired one. Alex, who was supposed to be at the Cirque Du Freak and enjoying the show, dashed out of her broken window and into the field outside our house. She now seemed to be running away with two other shadowy figures at a quick pace.

"ALEX"! I yelled. "WHAT THE HELL!? GET BACK HERE! MOM AND DAD WILL KILL ME IF YOU LEAVE"! I strained my voice and tried my best to convince her. Not to be blunt but I didn't care if she left or stayed. She'd be in trouble anyway.

However, she may have been the devil to me most days but if she left then I would be questioned and most likely blamed for the reason why she was leaving. Mom would go into depression and dad would beat me to get the reason why she left out of me. Now my mind might've been panicking but these thoughts could become facts.

In fact, I didn't like beaten just as the next person but would I risk trying to call back the devil that plagued my life?

I would never know since the very next second Alex vanished into the thick woods near the edge of the field and something hit the back of my head. Falling back onto my bed, I saw the room spinning around me before taking one last look at a shadow engulfing me.

* * *

As I slowly awakened I felt soft grass underneath my body and I raging headache inside my brain, and as I brought myself to sit up I found two bags next to me and myself in the woods. I opened them up to find my clothes, my art materials, and that picture of Jetta all packed neatly in the bags.

"What the hell's going on here"? I whispered not knowing if this was a dream or not.

Quickly, I looked around and found myself in the middle of the woods with nothing but tree tops towering above me and fog swirling beneath me. Animals' howls and hisses could be heard from all around until a gust of wind came rushing into through the branches of the trees and silenced all.

I crept back into a shadow of a nearby tree. "Seriously, what the hell is going on here"? I said in a voice but a little above that of a whisper.

"Glad you asked young Ashlethen"! Someone boomed. A silhouette of a shadow appeared from behind a few trees due to the full moon shining down upon the tree tops.

The male voice chuckled in the darkness as I only stared at the black shadow. "Listen I don't know who you are but I won't go easy on anyone who tries to attack me"! I hissed.

"Calm down Ashlethen, I was only playing around with you, only playing around, but I figure you don't remember me one bit, not even one"? He questioned me.

I glared at the shadow, "How in the hell do you know what I can and can't remember? Show yourself already"!

The silhouette became larger and instantly I found that the person wasn't in front of me was just a person, and as I glanced up I looked upon a man with red lips, hair, nails, and eyes. His skin color was true to the meaning and shade of Purple Mountain's Majesty that I remember from a dream not too long ago.

"Ah so you do know these colors but you don't yet grasp the memory of me"? He questioned.

I could only nod my head for an answer since I was a bit stunned still; when you're not ready to see a purple man you're not ready to see a purple man.

The man continued to smirked, "So Ashlethen if you don't recall me and you don't recall anything about your past how would you react if I said I could help you out to help myself out"?

I felt my blood run to my ears and I tried to think for a second but couldn't come to any sort of conclusion.

I frowned slightly, "What are you getting at mister!? I don't just run off with random people in the middle of the night"! I expected him to react a bit angry to my sudden rage, but instead he proceeded to grin.

"Do you at least remember the name Reed"? He asked.

"Yeah I do, but I don't know what it means". I said. "Who are you"?

I tried to think of what he was but my mind stopped blank when I tried to compare him to anything I've ever seen. Truly he was of nothing I've ever seen before at least in this life.

However, he didn't answer me for what felt like longest time in all of history but when I wasn't expecting he spoke up once more.

"My name is Murlough and if you want to find out your past in your true form you'll become my assistant and more importantly become a Vampaneze like myself". Murlough smirked. "I'll even do you a favor and just make you half Vampaneze so you'll have time to get used to the power. Being half blooded you will be able to enter daylight more than a true vampire but not as much as a human. Although, I will warn you right now that it's a dangerous life filled with loneliness and death, besides Vampaneze and Vampires are different when it comes to blood. They drink a little blood and leave their prey alive those bastards, but when we feed we take the person's blood, soul, and very life and make it are own. And Ashlethen you'll never be able to return to these humans ever again".

He turned his head towards the sky and looked at the moon before looking back down at me. "Your answer young one"?

This was too much…but so tempting for me. I mean I craved power like any person out there, but did I know what I would do once I had power?

No.

That may be a fact but maybe, just maybe, I can earn a second chance at my life and finally grasp my destiny and my past life before this one with the humans.

I smirked, "I hate humans, I love danger, I'm used to being by myself, and most of all I yearn to find out my past life. Please Murlough make one of you"! The Vampaneze's smirk only grew wider as my answer rang throughout the hollow forest.

In an instant he released my face from his grasp and I stepped back a few feet. He raised his right hand and pressed the nails of the left right into the fleshy tips of his left hand's fingers, and then he did the same thing when he cut open his right hand's fingertips. Murlough quickly grabbed my hands and slit their fingertips open as well, and then he put a few of my fingers into to his mouth for tasting.

He licked his lips as I got my hands back, "Hm, if I wasn't about to make you a Vampaneze I swear you'd be my next dinner choice. Anyway you have precious blood, so let us proceed".

The Vampaneze laid his fingers against my own, and for a couple of seconds there was a numb sensation at the end of my arms. I felt a flowing feeling and instantly knew that his blood was coming into my body from one hand, whereas my blood was traveling into his from the other. The feeling was familiar but I couldn't recall where I've felt it before, but the thought was shaken from my mind as Murlough's blood flowed into my heart. I almost fainted as the pain racked my body and I saw that this was also very painful for Murlough due to the fact he was clenching his teeth and hissing out swears. Thank hell the pain died when our blood started to creep back into its rightful body, but we remained locked for a few more seconds until he let go. I almost fell down but I kept standing so I wouldn't miss anything.

Murlough licked his fingers real quick before he ran his tongue over the tips of mine again, and once I got my hands back I saw ten small scars where he punctured my fingers.

"Now young assistant grab your things and we'll be off," Murlough told me, "After all Ashlethen a half Vampaneze doesn't have any place among humans".

Yeah he was right. Now that I was half vampaneze my life would be forever away from humans except for feeding on them, but that was how it was to be.

Nodding, I grabbed my two bags and he took my hand as we walked on from this part of our life and walked into the night life.

* * *

**You may now read over this as many times as you like and even review it if you deem it worthy enough to do so. In which I now take my leave.**


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